


The Smells of Love

by Ellsey



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alluring perfume, F/F, I REGRET NOTHING, I followed, honestly this is nonsense, my brain went places
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-08
Updated: 2020-10-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:55:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26901733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellsey/pseuds/Ellsey
Summary: May keeps smelling something that is drawing her to it. One day she discovers three of her agents have decided to make a "love potion," and finally May's questions have some answers.
Relationships: Melinda May/Agent Piper
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	The Smells of Love

**Author's Note:**

> AOS Ships It All Day 7 was Mayper and for my Marvel Femslash Bingo card I had the square "perfume" and somehow this came out. I kind of love it though.

The first time May smelled it, she was sitting in her bunk trying to read some papers Coulson had given her to look over. She had no idea what the aroma was, but it smelled heavenly.

May stood up and opened the door. It was coming from the direction of the workout room. When May walked over, the room was full of people. They were getting put through their paces by Bobbi, who just raised an eyebrow when she saw May in the doorway. May gave her a nod and went back to her room. It must have been someone’s perfume or something.

The next time she smelled it, she was in the kitchen getting some dinner. Some agents were walking by on their way for an evening out. They were dressed up and laughing as they walked. May was almost jealous of their youth, but not quite. Again though, she was almost overcome with the smell. It made her want to follow, but she quickly shook herself out of the trance. 

Then one time she smelled it so strongly, but she was nowhere near anyone. It was the strangest sensation. May followed the smell deeper and deeper into the Playground until she found the oddest thing: a group of her agents gathered around a large pot.

“What’s going on here?”

They jumped guiltily. “May, what are you doing down here?” Daisy asked.

“I was about to ask you all the same thing.” May frowned at them.

They looked at each other and all started talking at the same time. May held up a hand.

“One at a time please.”

Simmons went first. “I know this is going to sound ridiculous Agent May, but we were making a love potion.”

This stopped May in her tracks. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“We were trying to get into the mood for Halloween,” Daisy said. “So we went out to this tiny bookstore which, it turned out, sold like all this awesome rare stuff. Anyway, we found this book that had a list of incantations and spells, and we wanted to try it out.”

“This…” May paused. “This makes zero sense.”

“We just thought it’d be funny,” Bobbi said. “We didn’t think it would really work.”

“How do you know it worked?” May asked them.

“We don’t, not really,” Jemma said. “It’s not a love potion, not like you’re thinking. It’s supposed to make you smell something related to the person you love. Or that you’re destined to fall in love with. Yes, I know how this all sounds.”

“You’ve read Harry Potter one too many times,” May said.

“I am kind of shocked you know the reference,” Daisy said. “But yes, it’s something like that.”

“Except this was something we found in a moldy old book,” Bobbi said.

“Well, does it work?”

The three agents looked at each other again.

“We’re not actually sure,” Jemma said.

May decided to take matters into her hands. “Well, of the three of you, Bobbi is the obvious choice to test this. What do you smell Bobbi?”

“Honestly, all I smell is this beer we just opened,” Bobbi said with a shrug.

“Well that’s not helpful.” May scowled. “Simmons?”

Simmons shifted uncomfortably. “It kind of smells like...shampoo?”

“Just shampoo in general or a specific one?” May asked.

“I don’t…” Jemma looked everywhere except May. “I’m not sure.”

May suspected she wasn’t telling the truth, but there was also no reason to press her. “Daisy?”

“It smells like leather,” Daisy said. “Which covers most of the people I know, so that’s not helpful.”

“We need a larger sample population,” May said. 

“I’m not sure we want people to know what we’ve been doing,” Jemma said.

“They don’t need to know. They just need to walk by and tell us what they smell. Tell them we are testing their senses or something.”

“You are weirdly interested in this May,” Daisy said, giving May a speculative look.

May shrugged. “I’m bored.”

The first person they found was Agent Davis. “What do you smell right now?” May asked him.

Davis looked around sniffing the air. “It smells just like my wife’s favorite moisturizer. How’d you manage that?”

“Never mind that,” May said. “Your sense of smell seems to be in good shape. You’re dismissed.”

Next up was Coulson. “It smells like...well it smells like bow rosin.”

“I didn’t know that had a smell,” Jemma said.

Coulson just shrugged. Yoyo came next.

“What about you Yoyo?” Daisy asked. “What do you smell?”

“It smells like…” Elena paused. “Engine oil?”

“That checks out,” May said. “Thanks for coming.

Mack, Hunter, and Fitz came down together.

“What is this all about?” Fitz asked them.

“Just tell us what you smell, and you can go,” May said.

The three of them looked at each other, clearly unsure about what was going on.

Mack just shrugged. “Smell’s like Yoyo’s laundry detergent. It’s nice.”

“Thank you,” Jemma said. “And you Hunter?”

Hunter sniffed the air. “I don’t know what Mack’s on about. It smells like that weird hand lotion Bobbi’s mum sends her every year.”

Bobbi rolled her eyes. “It’s very moisturizing.”

“It smells funny.”

May stepped in. “Ok, that’s enough. Fitz?”

Fitz frowned. “It smells like...pesto...is someone cooking?”

“You’re all dismissed,” May told them. “You’ve been very helpful.”

When they left Jemma said, “So, this seems to be hit or miss. Some people smell very specific things, while others do not.”

“Maybe it _is_ working though,” Bobbi said. “We just don’t realize who the smells belong to in some cases.”

“Interesting,” Daisy said.

“What’s interesting?” Agent Piper had just entered the room.

“We’re just testing an...odor device,” Jemma replied. “If you could just let us know what you smell?”

Piper looked confused for a moment. “It smells like brewing tea I think?”

All at once, a number of things began to fall into place for May. 

“Thanks Piper, that’s all we needed,” Daisy said. 

“Ok, cool.” Piper turned around and left.

“Wait,” May called after Piper. “Piper, do you wear perfume?”

Piper blushed slightly. “Sometimes. It reminds me of my mom.” With that Piper left the room.

May sat and thought for just a moment, then stood and followed quickly after Piper.

“Wait, what did you smell May?” Daisy was the only one brave enough to ask.

“Piper’s perfume,” May said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go have a chat with her.”

She saw their jaws drop as she turned to leave. Well, she would worry about them later. Right now she needed to ask Piper out on a date. Everything else could wait.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> It's probably easy to guess what smells belonged to who except for Daisy who I left vague on purpose, so pick the person of your choice there.


End file.
